Filmmaker follows cup of joe

In the midst of midterms, most students can appreciate the subject of filmmaker Su Friedrich's current project: coffee.

Friedrich, a professor of visual arts and the subject of a recent retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), is working on an as-yet-untitled film that traces the production of one cup of coffee.

It's "quite a departure from my previous work," which usually focuses on personal experiences, Friedrich said. The idea for the film came to her because, as a New Yorker, she is constantly surrounded by pushcarts selling 50-cent cups of coffee.

"I think of it as a representative example of pretty much anything we use now in the modern world that is inexpensive. We take it for granted and don't think about it at all," she said. "We buy cheap everything everywhere and never think about what went into it."

Though Friedrich is a renowned filmmaker and professor, for most of her life she never envisioned herself as either.

After graduating from Oberlin College with a degree in art history, she worked exclusively with still images in graphic design and book and magazine production. Now, nearly 30 years later, Friedrich has created 13 films and is the first tenured filmmaker at the University.

Friedrich's films, which blend documentary and narrative forms, explore topics ranging from gender and sexuality to culture and power politics.

"All of my work, with the exception of one film, has been more or less based on my experiences," Friedrich said. "It's sometimes autobiographical; it's sometimes biographical or based on a member of my family or someone I am in a relationship with."

Friedrich almost always controls all aspects of her work, including sound and editing.

The recent MoMA retrospective of her work was scheduled to coincide with the release of a DVD collection featuring all 13 of her films.

"[The collection] is definitely what I would consider to be my body of work," she said.

Friedrich joined the Princeton faculty in 1998, when she was in search of a more stable lifestyle and job. It is her first longterm teaching job.

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"If you're an artist in America, you don't earn money unless you are extremely lucky or are extremely commercial," Friedrich said.

"I'm very happy to be at Princeton. It's a really supportive environment for the faculty, which is different from my experiences at other schools." She added that some of her projects have received financial support from the University.

While Friedrich believes that the University is generous to students in the visual arts department, she worries about the nationwide drop in funding for arts education.

"In schools in America in general over the last decade, there has been a precipitous drop in arts education," she said. "Growing up educated in the arts is really important even if you're going to be an investment banker or a doctor."

Friedrich hasn't lost hope, however. She has noticed an increase in talented students at the University who show interest in the arts and in her class. While some of her students came to class with experience in filmmaking, the best work she sees is often from unlikely candidates.

"There is always the student like the econ major I had five years ago who begged to get into my class because he was so bored with studying econ and I let him in because he was so eager," Friedrich said.

"He was pretty much the best student in my class."

While Friedrich's experience as a filmmaker informs her teaching, she tries not to influence her students excessively. She only shows students her own work at the end of the term.

"When it comes to making art and everyone's personal experiences, I think it's something to be very careful about as a teacher," said Friedrich. "I'm sure there are students who would look at my work on the very first day and not make anything like I do, but I just want to avoid undue influence and see what they have to say on their own."

With that one exception, her syllabus is eclectic, including films ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to documentaries.

"I see all types of films, and when they're good I'm glad, and when they're bad I'm mad," she said. "I don't feel like different genres of film should be made to compete with each other because each has its virtues."